India News | We Have an Opportunity to Position India Globally as Post-COVID Care Hub: Tourism Minister

New Delhi, Dec 14 (PTI) Union minister Prahlad Patel on Monday said the tourism ministry is gearing up to position India globally as the post-COVID care hub for wellness and Ayurveda.

He said efforts are on for listing all such centres in a systematic manner so that these can be widely publicised.

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The matter was discussed in a meeting of the National Medical and Wellness Tourism Board on Monday.

“Post-COVID we have an opportunity to promote Yoga and Ayurveda which will be need of the times. The board members have also recommended that we should have separate hubs for Ayurveda and Allopathy so that tourists are clear of their choices.

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“We have said that we should also have an authentic list of all our wellness centres and AYUSH hospitals so that we can properly publicise them. This will also help the foreign tourists to know the exact number of such centres and make a choice,” Patel told PTI after the meeting.

The tourism minister also said that India has 34 hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI) and 578 under the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH).

“The number of hospitals under the international standards of JCI have to increase so that the tourists can choose from more hospitals. Under Ayushman Bharat, a lot of hospitals have been upgraded. So now they will be incorporated into NABH and their level elevated to JIC levels so that people coming to India for medical tourism have more options. In fact, even visas will be granted based on recommendations from these centres and hospitals,” he said.

The National Medical and Wellness Tourism Board was formed to address impediments to the growth of medical tourism and provide dedicated institutional framework to take forward the cause of promotion of medical tourism, wellness tourism and Yoga, Ayurveda tourism and any other format of Indian system of medicine covered by Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH).

Eminent doctors like Naresh Trehan of Medanta; Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS; Devi Prasad Shetty, Chairman of Narayana Health, among others, are members of the Board.

Medical and wellness tourism is rapidly growing across the world.

The Global Medical Tourism Market was worth USD 19.7 billion in 2016 and estimated to be growing at a CAGR of 18.8 per cent to reach USD 46.6 billion by 2021, according to Services Export Promotion Council, Ministry of Commerce.

The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the largest share of around 40 per cent of the global market, it said.

More than 130 countries around the world are competing for a pie of this global business. The popular medical tourism destinations include India, Brunei, Cuba, Columbia, Hong Kong, Hungry, Jordan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand and US. It encompasses primarily and predominantly biomedical procedures combined with travel and tourism.

The total number of inward medical tourists doubled in a span of just three years in India. In 2017, around 22 per cent arrivals from West Asia was for medical purposes followed by 15.7 per cent from Africa, according to the Indian Tourism Statistics, 2018 report.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)